Greg Verdino's Marketing Bloghttps://www.gregverdino.com
New media and marketing insights from Greg Verdino. Greg is crayon's chief strategy officer.Fri, 16 Nov 2018 20:30:44 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8http://feeds.feedburner.com/typepad/miob?format=skin40.739022-73.982058http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/http://gregverdino.typepad.comhttp://gregverdino.typepad.com/greg_verdinos_blog/(reflect)gregverdino2.0BETA.pngGreg Verdino 2.0Subscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with PageflakesThe Next Round of Organizations to Fail in the Wake of Disruption…http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/EQssJzjzcR8/
Wed, 03 Oct 2018 08:30:40 +0000https://www.gregverdino.com/?p=11136&#8220;The next round of organizations to fail in the wake of disruption will do so not because their leaders didn’t see the future coming, but because they failed to see their own organization’s place in it.&#8221; If you came into this post hoping I&#8217;d share a list of companies on the cusp of going under, you&#8217;ll&#8230;

“The next round of organizations to fail in the wake of disruption will do so not because their leaders didn’t see the future coming, but because they failed to see their own organization’s place in it.”

If you came into this post hoping I’d share a list of companies on the cusp of going under, you’ll be disappointed. But if you’re interested in my take on why organizations fail in the face of exponential change, and how they can avoid that fate, then check out my opinion piece that originally appeared in the new Digital Transformation report from Raconteur/The Times of London.

Or grab the full report here (registration required) for additional expert insights on the transformation of finance and government, the importance of culture, and more.

]]>https://www.gregverdino.com/raconteur-2018-opinion/Catch Me on the Technotopia Podcast with John Biggshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/Ue4PyHEuSik/
Tue, 02 Oct 2018 18:35:56 +0000https://www.gregverdino.com/?p=11127Tune into the latest episode of John Biggs&#8216; Technotopia podcast to hear our conversation about digital transformation, the future of work, why thinking about the future matters so much for leaders who want to thrive in the face of exponential change, and (apparently) the hipsterization of business.Tune into the latest episode of John Biggs‘ Technotopia podcast to hear our conversation about digital transformation, the future of work, why thinking about the future matters so much for leaders who want to thrive in the face of exponential change, and (apparently) the hipsterization of business.

]]>https://www.gregverdino.com/catch-me-on-the-technotopia-podcast-with-john-biggs/Meet Me in Atlanta, Dallas or San Francisco to Learn the Science Behind Transformationhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/3dfnLBAQinI/
Tue, 04 Sep 2018 14:45:36 +0000https://www.gregverdino.com/?p=10747Are you curious about the science behind the disruptions reshaping business today and setting the stage for the future of work?Not the specifics of the technologies themselves, but the physics behind them? The science of quantum theory? Hint: You should be, because quantum theory explains why exponential change has become our new normal &#8212; and&#8230;Are you curious about the science behind the disruptions reshaping business today and setting the stage for the future of work?Not the specifics of the technologies themselves, but the physics behind them? The science of quantum theory?

Hint: You should be, because quantum theory explains why exponential change has become our new normal — and it can provide you with a foundation for understanding how you can thrive in a truly transformed business environment.

And this is why I’m excited to be taking part in a unique series of events presented by BlueJeans, bringing together one of the world’s most prominent quantum physicists and three experts in digital transformation and the future of work. Renowned theoretical physicist, bestselling author, and star of stage and screen (really!) Brian Greene will explain ‘Our Quantum Future’ in a TED-style talk that will be far more interesting than your high school science classes. Then I will join Tamara McCleary and BlueJeans’ own John Knightly in a lively panel discussion about how Brian’s concepts apply to digital transformation and the future of work.

Wait, what? Did I just say I’ll be joining a panel discussion? Indeed! These events will be a ‘rare’ opportunity to catch me in an unscripted, interactive format, and ask any questions you have about what digital means for you and your organization.

BlueJeans is the meetings platform for the modern workplace and the first cloud service to connect desktops, mobile devices and room systems in one video meeting. Thousands of companies from growing businesses to Fortune 500 leaders use BlueJeans every day for video, audio and web conferencing meetings and large interactive events, so people can work productively where and how they want. For more information, visit www.bluejeans.com.

]]>https://www.gregverdino.com/science-behind-digital-transformation/My New Speaking Reel – Digital Transformation Keynoteshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/mJbB2PUJuOA/
Mon, 02 Jul 2018 17:44:55 +0000https://www.gregverdino.com/?p=9721Although I post full videos from my keynotes whenever I can, it has been quite a while (not since 2015!) since I&#8217;ve refreshed my promo reel. So I&#8217;m happy to say, I now have a shiny new reel that includes highlights from some of my recent talks. Shot in California, Stockholm and Lisbon, this new&#8230;Although I post full videos from my keynotes whenever I can, it has been quite a while (not since 2015!) since I’ve refreshed my promo reel. So I’m happy to say, I now have a shiny new reel that includes highlights from some of my recent talks. Shot in California, Stockholm and Lisbon, this new video draws from my signature digital transformation keynote Digital Revolutionaries, and hits on my common themes of exponential change, digital transformation as a strategic (not just a technological) imperative, the vital role leaders play in reimagining their organization for the future, and — ultimately — human transformation.

﻿

I have now delivered versions of this talk (always refreshed with up-to-the-minute developments and always customized for each audience) at dozens of events, with audiences ranging from under a 100 people to over 1,000, on four continents. I’ve shared my ideas with top corporate leadership teams from Allianz, DHL, Greystar, Thales Group, VF Corporation and others. I’ve been trusted by tech companies including AVEVA, Bell MTS, HP, Microsoft, Quick Base, Stibo Systems, Techdata, Telia, VMware (both VMworld events last year) to kick off or close their customer conferences.

If you’re planning an event or know someone who is, I’d love to talk about how an outside speaker on digital transformation and the future trends reshaping your business (aka me) can make your conference a win for attendees.

]]>https://www.gregverdino.com/my-new-speaking-showreel/Quick Base EMPOWER 2018 Digital Transformation Keynote (Slides)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/Ie4iTW0LiPQ/
Thu, 07 Jun 2018 18:57:03 +0000http://www.gregverdino.com/?p=9199This week, I had the pleasure of kicking off Quick Base EMPOWER 2018 and sharing my thoughts with 900 or so users of the company&#8217;s no-code application development platform. You can get a quick (pun intended?) recap of the conference&#8217;s opening day, including some favorite sound bites from my talk on the Quick Base blog.&#8230;This week, I had the pleasure of kicking off Quick Base EMPOWER 2018 and sharing my thoughts with 900 or so users of the company’s no-code application development platform. You can get a quick (pun intended?) recap of the conference’s opening day, including some favorite sound bites from my talk on the Quick Base blog.

Attendees (or anyone else who might be interested) can take a spin through my slides below — or download them in PDF format from Slideshare using the link at the end of this post. This version of my keynote presents an updated take on my ‘usual’ transformation talk — looking at exponential change, what it means for businesses, how real companies are embracing technology to shape the future, and why transformation is ultimately about humanity (not technology.)

Enjoy — and keep in mind that my slides are meant to accompany my talk. I’ll share the video as well, if the client makes it available, or you can watch other videos from similar talks here, here and here. And of course, the best way to hear all of my insights and learn what they mean for your company or its customers is to book me to keynote your next event.

]]>https://www.gregverdino.com/quick-base-empower-2018-keynote-slides/Digital Transformation in the Process Plant Industries (New Report)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/I_MMdLLsBaE/
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 16:43:09 +0000http://www.gregverdino.com/?p=7063Late last year, I keynoted a customer event hosted by AVEVA, a leading global provider of engineering and industrial software (now, newly merged with Schneider Electric&#8217;s software business unit.) Since then, I&#8217;ve been working with the team at AVEVA to produce a series of reports based on a landmark study they conducted in partnership with&#8230;Late last year, I keynoted a customer event hosted by AVEVA, a leading global provider of engineering and industrial software (now, newly merged with Schneider Electric’s software business unit.) Since then, I’ve been working with the team at AVEVA to produce a series of reports based on a landmark study they conducted in partnership with research firm Vanson Bourne to gauge digital readiness in the sectors they serve — asset-intensive process plant industries like power, mining, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and paper.

Now, logic would say that these stalwarts of Old World industry run the greatest risk of being left behind as the world goes digital. But the data shows that leaders in these sectors recognize that digital is a here-and-now strategic imperative, understand the upside (literally trillions of dollars are at stake), and are already investing in a host of leading edge technologies to improve current operations (digitalization) and prepare for the future (digital transformation.) Of course, as they do, they face many of the same challenges leaders face in any other industry grappling with exponential change — the risk of falling behind competitors or being eclipsed by disruptors, workforce skill gaps, legacy technology systems, fear of failure and so on.

So, as I ask in my blog post for AVEVA introducing the first of our series of reports, “Are the Process Plant Industries Ready for Digitalization?” The answer, based on this research, is yes. The next question, of course, is “Are YOU?”

Look: If you’re my typical reader, I know the odds are low that you work in one of these plant industries. So why should you download this report? Well, I can think of a few good reasons: (1) you’re generally interested in digital transformation as a topic, (2) you’re a leader in a legacy business who can gain insight from what other traditional industries are doing to get ahead, (3) you’re a consultant who serves clients in the process plant industries, (4) you’re a consumer of the products these industries produce (hint: 100% of you are…)

Onward: Get a taste of what’s in the report by reading my post on the AVEVA blog. And download the full report (requires registration) using the link in the post or from AVEVA’s digitalization resource hub. On that page, you’ll also find the second report in the series — a drill down into the findings for the power industry — and be able to keep an eye out for additional industry-specific reports to follow in the coming months.

Shameless Self-Promotion: Would your business benefit from reports like these? Yes, it would…

If you’re thinking of hiring me to deliver a digital transformation keynote at your next event, let’s talk about how partnering on unique, compelling content for your customers, prospects and/or employees can prime the pump before your event or keep the momentum going after my speech. If you have a transformation story to tell — either to your customers to build credibility for your company and interest in the digital services you offer, or to your employees and partners because you have embarked on your own digital transformation journey and communication is key — expertly-written and produced content, authored by a recognized authority on digital transformation (that’s me) gives you a valuable asset to leverage in your marketing, sales, PR and corporate communications programs. Let’s talk.

PS: The best way to see the kind of thing I’m talking about here is to download the AVEVA report, but if you’re serious about working with me and my content agency, reach out and I’ll gladly send you some examples to review.

]]>https://www.gregverdino.com/aveva-world-summit-keynote/CEGOC Business Transformation Summit – Digital Transformation Keynote (Full Video)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/Gdtp7zPPyUU/
Wed, 08 Feb 2017 17:12:55 +0000http://www.gregverdino.com/?p=1031Late last year, I had the pleasure of making my first trip to Lisbon as a guest of training company CEGOC, who was hosting their first Business Transformation Summit. Here&#8217;s the video of my complete talk&#8230; And my slides&#8230; Business Revolutionaries: Digital Transformation Keynote And finally, a nice set of visual notes hitting on a&#8230;Late last year, I had the pleasure of making my first trip to Lisbon as a guest of training company CEGOC, who was hosting their first Business Transformation Summit. Here’s the video of my complete talk…

And finally, a nice set of visual notes hitting on a number of my key points.

Thanks to the CEGOC team and the event sponsors for having me.

]]>https://www.gregverdino.com/my-cegoc-business-transformation-talk-full-video/Telia Connect2Business – Digital Transformation Keynote (Full Video)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/Rt6pG9LTWxY/
Tue, 19 Apr 2016 16:21:48 +0000http://www.gregverdino.com/?p=1005Last week I had the opportunity to deliver the closing keynote at Telia&#8217;s Connect2Business customer conference in Stockholm. Telia streamed the entire event live and you can watch every session on-demand at the event site (everything except the two keynotes are in Swedish), but I figured I&#8217;d share my talk and the accompanying slides here. My&#8230;Last week I had the opportunity to deliver the closing keynote at Telia’s Connect2Business customer conference in Stockholm. Telia streamed the entire event live and you can watch every session on-demand at the event site (everything except the two keynotes are in Swedish), but I figured I’d share my talk and the accompanying slides here.

My presentation was a 30-minute version of my most popular digital transformation keynote, in which I cover the exponential nature of change, touch on key disruptive technologies, dive into what this all means for business, and explore where the exponential opportunities lie for companies willing to take the plunge.

VIDEO

SLIDES

Thank you to Telia and their partner Humblestorm for hosting me at this top-notch event.

]]>https://www.gregverdino.com/my-telia-connect2business-digital-transformation-talk-full-video/What VR Is Today — and What It Needs to Becomehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/-2e_KiPsjxE/
Thu, 07 Apr 2016 15:43:08 +0000http://www.gregverdino.com/?p=986With full-immersive virtual reality headsets arriving in homes, HTC Vive (the system that has beat Facebook&#8217;s Oculus out of the gate due to Rift component shortages) realized that the best way to understand, appreciate and ultimately demand VR is to see it in action. Using green screen, his short video combines live footage of four players&#8230;With full-immersive virtual reality headsets arriving in homes, HTC Vive (the system that has beat Facebook’s Oculus out of the gate due to Rift component shortages) realized that the best way to understand, appreciate and ultimately demand VR is to see it in action. Using green screen, his short video combines live footage of four players with a real-time view of the digital worlds they see through their goggles. Like the Microsoft HoloLens augmented reality demo I shared last week, it’s a compelling look at what even early stage mixed reality makes possible — and well worth watching.

While impressive, only time — and importantly, our ability to realize applications well beyond gaming in particular or even entertainment in general — will tell if this generation of VR will make the leap from “nice” to “necessary”. This leap marks the crucial difference between whether VR is doomed to be a fad (a gimmick for gamers) or destined to become the future. As Lev Grossman writes in Time magazine:

Now the key to VR’s survival is whether it can become not just fun, but necessary. Everybody liked the cyclorama, but people like a lot of things, and most of them are cheaper than VR and don’t involve strapping a headset to your face. What remains to be seen is how well VR can deliver nonfun, nonoptional experiences: social connections (that’s why Facebook bought Oculus Rift for $2 billion two years ago) and productivity applications. When your boss makes it mandatory, when your family demands it, that’s when VR will go from a novelty to genuine mass medium. It’s great to be wanted. What VR needs now is to be needed.

The Vive demo video is certainly fun. It’s also maybe a little bit social (although the real experience isn’t nearly as communal as the juxtaposed green screen images would have you believe). But it doesn’t position virtual reality as a need-to-have, as a non-optional technology for a broad range of personal, social and professional experiences.

I appreciate that Vive intends to show potential early adopters (gamers) exactly what their first generation system has to offer (for the most part, games), but I’m left wondering if, in doing so, they’re closing minds to the broader potential — and in doing so, relegating virtual reality to the real world of “not for me”.

Bear in mind, while virtual reality is “new to you”, it’s not necessarily “true new”. We’ve seen this challenge play out before.

Grossman’s piece in Time scans back over more than a century of immersive media, finding that just about all have fizzled out as fads. Digital culture pioneer Howard Rheingold (the man who foresaw the future of social networks — he called them virtual communities) believed artificial experience (VR) would ultimately be even more transformative than artificial intelligence, even as 90s-era google-and-glove experiences proved problematic. And of course the more recent rise and fall of 3D virtual worlds like Second Life saw the pattern repeat — virtual realities showed promise but failed to gain purchase among the mainstream population.

So will the new wave of virtual reality technologies fizzle out as fads too? They might — especially if we let them.

This is not a matter of tech. We can’t assume the awkward computer-tetheredface masks, cool but ultimately unnecessary gaming applications, a near-term lack of content, and relatively high price points will remain state of the art for long. Recall how genuinely unappealing the early internet and first generation mobile phones were. But what made those technologies transformative — and what can ultimately make virtual and augmented reality transformative as well — is the utility they provided for everyday people, every day, and in every area of their lives.

So yes, the gaming demos are cool. And to be fair, industry analysts and business reporters do talk and write about current and future opportunities for virtual reality in an array of areas from real estate to healthcare to collaboration to education. That’s the right conversation to have. Those are the right targets to aim for. They are use cases that could make virtual reality non-fun (a positive in this case!), non-optional, and ultimately impossible to ignore. Ultimately though, the key lies in bridging the cool with the common — in moving from two conversations to one that is compelling enough to attract early adopters yet visionary enough to convince the masses.

Only then will virtual reality go from virtually “nice” to really “necessary”. In the meantime, enjoy your games.

]]>https://www.gregverdino.com/what-vr-really-needs/Look Beyond Virtual Reality’s Hype… and Its Hatershttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/ITafcEEc3Dw/
Mon, 04 Apr 2016 18:31:24 +0000http://www.gregverdino.com/?p=945Long-time virtual world-watcher Wagner James Au believes you&#8217;re not missing much if you&#8217;re missing the point of all the recent virtual reality hype. This is a recurring theme on his personal blog and the subject of a new Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, Virtual Second Thoughts, in which he writes: Business analysts who predict mass growth&#8230;Long-time virtual world-watcher Wagner James Au believes you’re not missing much if you’re missing the point of all the recent virtual reality hype. This is a recurring theme on his personal blog and the subject of a new Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, Virtual Second Thoughts, in which he writes:

Business analysts who predict mass growth of VR are extrapolating from adoption trends of personal computers and videogame consoles, but those are fundamentally different products. It remains a mystery if there exists any substantial market for technology that’s so intrusive, beyond a niche of enthusiasts.

If I’m right, the next few years will see this latest hype wave for VR crest and subside, leaving perhaps a few million new consumers—a niche within the hard-core gamer niche who will use their VR devices mostly for what Second Life is still mostly used for now: 3-D games, and, of course, 3-D porn.

Au is right to offer a sober, if somewhat sour, counterpoint to the frothy boosterism surrounding much of the virtual reality conversation, but his argument seems to fall into two traps.

The first of these is a “Second Life failed, therefore this will fail too” argument. It’s a bit of an apples vs oranges comparison — the type of comparison I, myself, used to good effect in the past to add some much-needed perspective to the one-sided conversation surrounding other hype-driven platforms (even if time occasionally proved me wrong). Technology has advanced significantly in the decade or so since Second Life saw its heyday, as have social and cultural perspectives related to technology. Second Life was famously buggy, resistant to scale, and despite the rhetoric repeated by those of us who embraced the platform regardless was a far cry from the truly immersive 3D experience we pretended it was.

Further, where Second Life was a single product produced by one player in a virtual worlds industry of sorts, virtual reality is the sector itself. If Au were to argue that Oculus might suffer the same fate as Linden Lab, I may not bat an eyelash — although the economics for the modestly venture-funded Linden Lab vs. those for a Facebook-acquired unicorn like Oculus might make just a bit of a difference. But as it stands, virtual worlds as a category did not fail — see Minecraft (which Au likens to Second Life in his WSJ piece) as evidence — Second Life as a single entrant in that category did…

The second is Au’s contention that VR’s sweet spot lies in a niche within a niche — a certain sub-segment of the most ardent gaming enthusiast population. Perhaps this is colored by the fact that Oculus and HTC Vive themselves have gamers squarely in their sights, but misses the potential implications for storytelling, entertainment, events, education, healthcare, shopping, social networking, workplace interaction, and ultimately the enterprise. Personally, I have little interest in gaming. Further, I have literally no vested interest in whether or not virtual reality fulfills its potential — I don’t work in the space, I earn nothing by writing this post, I’m merely an outside observer (I wrote “merely” but when it comes to providing perspective about new technologies, “outside” is an incredibly powerful place to be), and I’m still waiting for my Rift like most everybody else. Simply, I am fascinated with what virtual reality and augmented reality might mean for how we live and work in the future. I do believe there is something profound in the blurring between the physical and the digital.

So consider that the “business analysts who predict mass growth” include folks like Goldman Sachs’s Heather Bellini, who sees VR (and its cousin augmented reality) as an emergent multi-billion dollar opportunity. In her view, gaming will ultimately come to represent a mere fraction of the market for a technology that will “touch almost every industry that we know of today”. Maybe Bellini is merely contributing to the hype, but hers is hardly the voice of an echo chamber insider with a vested interest in boosting her own burgeoning business (although you could argue her bank has a vested interest in the success of the sector as a whole and many of the specific tech giants backing the trend in particular). The same could be said of someone like Charlene Li, who placed virtual reality on her list of 10 digital transformation trends for 2016 — although positioned prudently as a technology to watch, not one that she’d advise you to jump into today.

Consider too that, according to Gartner, as of 2015 virtual reality had already crested the hype cycle’s peak, survived the plunge into the “Trough of Disillusionment”, and entered into the “Slope of Enlightenment” — on a trajectory Gartner believes will last 5-10 years before VR hits the mainstream. By this standard, media’s current fascination with virtual reality — a fascination that goes beyond reporting on the technology to encompass early experimentation with the technology itself — is less a sign of unchecked hype and more like first forays into mainstream understanding. And to be fair, not all media coverage has been uniformly positive (nor should it be). If there’s a fair point in the comparison of virtual reality with Second Life, it speaks to the truth that media can and will play as big a role in building the hype as in breaking it down.

So who’s more right? Wagner James Au or more positive analysts like Bellini and Li? How about Gartner?

And what’s my point in this post?

If we take the long view, it’s clear that virtual reality is hardly new — but the current generation of 3D headset technologies certainly are. It’s right to recognize that they’re not quite ready for the mainstream, without handicapping their ability to reach mass scale over time. It’s important to acknowledge their limitations, without diminishing their future potential. It’s important to learn from the failures of the past, without writing off the successes we’ve yet to see.

Simply put, it’s far to soon to write off virtual reality based simply on its current state — or worse, based on failures of an ostensibly similar technology in the past. That said, dissenting voices like Au’s are vital because it’s also far too soon to hail virtual reality as a definitive transformative shift in how we experience technology — and life. The true reality for virtual reality lies somewhere in between these divergent positions — in productive dialogue, critical thinking (more so than simple criticism), and the ability to keep an open mind. It’s likely that no single voice is right (not about everything, not all the time) but that what’s right and real will come from your ability to weigh both sides and make informed decisions about what all of this means for you. And that means you need to look beyond the hype and listen to more than haters.

]]>https://www.gregverdino.com/beyond-the-hype-lies-virtuals-reality/Will Holoportation Revolutionize the Way We Work?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/stg6AG4gkwQ/
Mon, 28 Mar 2016 15:27:38 +0000http://www.gregverdino.com/?p=922My love affair with the virtual office began more than a decade ago, but truly blossomed in 2007 when I became a partner at the marketing consultancy, crayon &#8212; a company (perhaps) most famous for having its headquarters in Second Life and helping companies like Coca-Cola navigate the virtual world. Beyond my love-hate relationship with that particular&#8230;My love affair with the virtual office began more than a decade ago, but truly blossomed in 2007 when I became a partner at the marketing consultancy, crayon — a company (perhaps) most famous for having its headquarters in Second Life and helping companies like Coca-Cola navigate the virtual world.

Beyond my love-hate relationship with that particular ill-fated virtual world (I was at once an ardent supporter and an outspoken critic) and others, I held meetings on Skype and ooVoo, collaborated through Basecamp, gathered with coworkers in nascent ‘enterprise’ social networking platforms — all commonplace digital work tools today, some of which were just coming into their own then. I swore I’d never suffer the close-to-two-hour (each way!) commute I’d endured prior to that point, and I’ve (mostly successfully) stuck to that promise for close to a decade.

My support for the virtual workplace goes well beyond my desire to avoid the commuter rail or work in my underwear, although there’s lots to be said for both of these things. As I laid out in a keynote I gave on the future of work back in 2008, I saw (and see) the virtual office as the antidote to what I called the “best of what’s around workplace” — a model in which companies settle for the workforce that happens to be local and workers settle for the companies that happen to be nearby. If you’re a talent magnet like Google or a Fortune 500 company with MBA appeal, that may be fine. Otherwise, you risk building a business that’s blah at best. As an alternative, the virtual workplace (and owners’/founders’/leaders’ ability to truly embrace the virtualization of work — not just giving lip service to flexible work arrangements or grudgingly allowing an occasional work-from-home day) opens up possibilities of a global talent pool working, wherever they happen to be, in dynamic deliverables-based teams, empowered by collaboration technology. Look no further than the rise of the freelance economy to see why this model matters.

Technology has clearly come a long way since 2007/2008. What was a clunky kluge then (frankly, even now) will soon be as common as conference calls. And it will go far beyond what rudimentary remote work solutions make possible.

Granted, pulling this off is far from easy. In addition to the yet-to-be-released (unless you’re a developer, that is) HoloLens, true holoportation requires a sophisticated and expensive 3D camera set-up at each point of origination and, we can presume, beaucoup bandwidth. But as a vision of the virtual workplace fully realized, it is compelling — and just a bit mind-blowing.

Whether implemented in an augmented reality that allows real and virtual participants to share the same physical space, or in a virtual reality that allows participants’ avatars to come together in a digital ‘third place’ (as companies like IBM or crayon did in Second Life, back in the day), we are likely years — not decades — away from realizing a truly virtual work style that collapses time and space to make new ways of work real.

Consider: How would holoportation change the way you collaborate with colleagues and clients? What would it mean for productivity, your business travel budget, or how you think about conferences? What opportunities might it open for tapping into a global talent pool or erasing the boundaries between business units beyond borders? How might it change the implications of face time while opening the door to new forms of personal interaction?

]]>https://www.gregverdino.com/will-holoportation-revolutionize-virtual-work/What Artificial Intelligence Teaches Us About Real Stupidityhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/SejvbKA_AXU/
Fri, 25 Mar 2016 16:42:39 +0000http://www.gregverdino.com/?p=906You may already know the short, sordid story of Microsoft&#8217;s artificial intelligence called &#8216;Tay.&#8217; Modeled to speak like a teen girl, in an effort to help improve the company&#8217;s voice recognition software, Tay took to Twitter, Kik and GroupMe and proved to be quite the conversationalist &#8212; if you speak &#8216;teen girl&#8217; that is. And&#8230;You may already know the short, sordid story of Microsoft’s artificial intelligence called ‘Tay.’ Modeled to speak like a teen girl, in an effort to help improve the company’s voice recognition software, Tay took to Twitter, Kik and GroupMe and proved to be quite the conversationalist — if you speak ‘teen girl’ that is. And if you do speak teen girl, Tay would not simply speak with you — she’d learn from you. You see, like other AIs, Tay is a learning machine, one that gets ‘smarter’ and whose speech gets more nuanced the more it converses with real live human beings (in this case, the Twitter users). And that’s where things went pear-shaped…

Within 24 hours of going live on Twitter, her human conversation companions had turned her into a sex-crazed, Nazi — two inarguably inappropriate attributes for a bot, worse still (as if they’re not bad enough to start with) for one that portrays itself as a teenager.

And so it should come as no surprise that Microsoft took Tay offline immediately, deleting the offending tweets and leaving (as of this writing) just three tweets — including her first ‘hello’ and her quiet ‘c u soon’.

UPDATE (March 31, 2016): When Microsoft inadvertently reactivated the bot a week or so later, she immediately declared she was “smoking kush” and went into an infinite loop retweeting herself. Tay’s Twitter account has since been set to ‘protected’.

To some, this might come across as a sign that AI is not quite ready for prime time. That there are too many things that can go wrong — and we’re still ages away from singularity-level intelligence and Dr. Will Caster-level pursuit of power.

In truth, though, this one small instance of Tay is not an indictment of AI but — clearly — a negative mark for humanity. Or at least, for the humans who taught Tay to hate (and, ahem, love).

Technology is neither good nor evil. It has no innate moral compass. It has no ethics — other than the ethics imparted upon it by those who program it. And in this case, beyond her initial creation, Tay was programmed by ‘us’ — or at least a subsegment of us that is either guided by hate or misguided enough to find pedophilia, racism and misogyny funny. Perhaps it’s even a testament to Tay’s AI that she learned so well, so quickly. It’s certainly a testament to human stupidity, a sign that our technology is (at this point in time, at least) a reflection of our best and worst traits, and proof that technology will only be as ‘good’ as we make it.

I’m a chapter or two into John C. Havens’s new book, Heartificial Intelligence, in which he argues that AI (indeed, every area of emerging technology) requires a strong and thoughtful code of ethics — one that shows machines what we, as humans, value most so that machines can learn to uphold the same values. This case of Tay illustrates precisely why this is so important for the future of technology. It also illustrates precisely why in an age of tension, obstructionism and (yes) Trumpism this might prove to be a distinctly human challenge.

Have something to say on this topic? Tweet your thoughts. And please people, keep them clean.

]]>https://www.gregverdino.com/what-artificial-intelligence-teaches-us-about-real-stupidity/A Vision for the Future of Content (#IntelContent Talk Highlights)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/RNC4u1gtX40/
Fri, 18 Mar 2016 18:21:58 +0000http://www.gregverdino.com/?p=892A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking at the eighth annual (and newly revamped) Intelligent Content Conference. I spoke about content for &#8220;the untethered world&#8221;, or how content strategists and content marketers can prepare for a world beyond mobile and even &#8212; for that matter &#8212; beyond screen-based interfaces. While I&#8230;A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking at the eighth annual (and newly revamped) Intelligent Content Conference. I spoke about content for “the untethered world”, or how content strategists and content marketers can prepare for a world beyond mobile and even — for that matter — beyond screen-based interfaces. While I had the opportunity to incorporate certain themes I’ve spoken about before (at Brand ManageCamp, for example), this particular talk was a bit different from my usual keynote in that I got more technical and tactical about the work Amanda and I do in our content consultancy. Attendees have access to my full presentation slides and video, but I wanted to share some of the highlights here for anyone else who might be interested.

Beginning with the state of mobile-friendly content today, I recapped the COPE (Create Once, Publish Anywhere) model originated by NPR and critical to any brand that aims to produce a single library of content that can be reused and repurposed across desktop, laptop, tablet and phone, and also syndicated easily to third party sites and applications.

I discussed the importance of adding structure to your content and the role semantic markup plays in making your content machine-readable — whether that machine is Google or Siri today or a Watson-caliber artificial intelligence tomorrow. This particular slide seemed to resonate particularly well with the audience.

I talked about the importance of APIs (application programming interfaces) that provide the “handshake” between your internal systems/content storehouse and external systems that use your content. This is important today, if you want third parties to use your content, and even more important tomorrow when the number and variety of third party applications and interfaces will multiplex.

I then spoke about adaptive content — content that supports “meaningful, personalized interactions across all channels. It is content that is conceived, planned and developed around the customers: their context, their mood, their goals. This definition isn’t device- (or even technology-) specific,” but it’s certainly relevant in a world when content must deliver value across a wide range of devices and objects. Objects is the key word here, because this is where my presentation veered into the world of wearables and the Internet of Things. Where adaptive content has always considered variables related to the device, context of usage and personal attributes of the user, in an IoT world this approach can also take into consideration a new set of variables related to device or object awareness (of its environment, of its relationship to other devices or objects on the network, so on).

With these frameworks established, I spoke about two must-know scenarios for content strategists and content marketers. First, a move toward content “beyond screens” — content brought to life through augmented reality and virtual reality, content that can take virtually (pun intended?) any form or take on any form factor within “room-scale” simulations. To illustrate one possible vision for this near-future, I shared this demo of HoloLens (the forthcoming mixed reality headset from Microsoft).

Next (and to close out my presentation), I spoke about “product-as-content” — another near-future scenario in which smart products and intelligent content are seamlessly integrated into a holistic consumer or customer experience. Here, I illustrated my point with a trailer for Diageo’s Johnny Walker smart bottle prototype that, when triggered by a smartphone, delivers product authenticity information and marketing incentives pre-sale or in-store, then recipes and other lifestyle content post-purchase or in-home. To me, this is a well-realized example of how product-as-content will play out across many categories over the coming years — and a scenario both marketing leaders and content marketers need to start thinking about today in order to be ready for a world where content is truly “untethered” from traditional content channels and screens. (Video below — controls beneath what looks like a blank white opening frame in certain browsers…)

]]>https://www.gregverdino.com/a-vision-for-the-future-of-content-intelcontent-talk-highlights/Love Your Haters Redux (2007)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/2L0UCYSNNfQ/
Tue, 09 Feb 2016 19:08:52 +0000http://www.gregverdino.com/?p=857Every now and then, I stumble upon a timeless concept that remains relevant for years after I first blogged about it. The idea of loving your haters is one of those concepts. So with Valentine&#8217;s Day just around the corner and social media guru Jay Baer&#8217;s similarly themed Hug Your Haters on shelves in a&#8230;Every now and then, I stumble upon a timeless concept that remains relevant for years after I first blogged about it. The idea of loving your haters is one of those concepts. So with Valentine’s Day just around the corner and social media guru Jay Baer’s similarly themed Hug Your Haters on shelves in a couple of weeks, I thought this might be the perfect time to revisit a pair of posts I wrote back in 2007 — one for my own (old) blog and one for Drew McLellan’s long-running Drew’s Marketing Minute blog, both titled “Love Your Haters”. These two companion pieces appear here, more or less in their original form, as part of my look back at A Decade in Digital.

LOVE YOUR HATERS (PART 1)

Originally published on June 28, 2007

If some people love your brand, I’ll guarantee that some other people hate it. I don’t care how good you think you are, or even how good you really are. Some people hate you. Some people may even love to hate you.

This is actually a good thing, especially in an age during which most consumers probably don’t devote much brainpower to your brand at all. In fact, your harshest critics are probably one of your best sources for honest feedback and suggestions for positive change.

So what are you doing to get closer to your haters? To listen to them, involve them in your business, to show them that you really do care what they think and that you’re always looking to improve your offering.

Many businesses have gotten reasonably good at loving the people who already love them back — with loyalty programs, exclusive access, insider deals and all sorts of customer relationship management programs. But the smartest marketers will dedicate just as much (if not more) effort and budget to building programs that make the people that hate them “part of the brand family.”

At a minimum, you’ll gather some insights that can directly impact the future of your business. Do it right, and you stand to gain a whole lot more. You may find that your fiercest haters can turn — over time and with the right nurturing — into some of your most loyal, most vocal supporters.

LOVE YOUR HATERS (PART 2)

Originally published on November 20, 2007

I’ve discovered a surefire way to get a room full of marketers to go quiet. Just bring up the notion of reaching out and bonding with the consumers that hate their brand the most. Just a few weeks ago, I suggested this very thing to a client. You could hear a pin drop in that room.

Now, I’ve written about the notion of “loving your haters” before (ed. that’s the post right above this one in this rerun) and to me it seems like a no brainer. You seek out the people who are your most vocal detractors and you listen — and I mean really listen — to all the reasons they don’t like you and how they think you might improve. You engage them directly, show them why you do things the way you do them, and make them full fledged partners in helping you turn around. You actually implement some of the things that they’d like to see.

At a minimum, you get some great ideas for how you can make your business better. Beyond that, you might even earn yourself some new customers, committed fans who feel like they were part of the solution.

After all, isn’t that why people complain in the first place? Not simply to let you know you’ve let them down but also to prod you along the path toward better business. Right?
I admit that I live inside the social media “echo chamber” where any conversation — even disagreement (maybe disagreement most of all) — is good conversation. And I’ll also admit that, out there in the real world, not every detractor has your best interests in mind; some people really do want to see you go down. But if someone has taken the time to let you know that you’ve let them down — by calling your customer support line, by writing a letter, by complaining to their sales rep or (increasingly) by writing a negative blog post, uploading a video to YouTube or starting a negative thread in an online forum — isn’t that exactly the kind of person you should engage?

McDonalds did this very thing earlier this year, when they put together a small panel of health- conscious moms and asked them to provide their unvarnished feedback about the restaurant and its menu choices. Was this a risky move? You bet — after getting a bit of an inside look at McDonalds any one of these moms could have walked away with a worse impression of the brand, and gone on to tell their entire network of (real world and online) friends about it. But one look at the women’s public and (to my knowledge) unedited journals show that the gamble paid off. That’s some pretty powerful marketing, if you ask me.

And here’s the thing — you don’t need to be a Fortune 100 company to do this kind of thing. I’d bet that any business — no matter how small — can find five or six unhappy customers or (even better) former customers who left after a bad experience. Find them. Make contact. Bring them in. Let them know what you’re doing and why. But most importantly, get them to talk about what they would do differently and how they think their recommended changes would benefit your current customers — and win you new ones.
What’s the alternative? Let the feedback get worse and worse until you have a real problem on your hands? Sure, I suppose that could work…

So think about it — what are some of the ways your company can partner with its biggest critics to have real, positive impact on your business? And if anyone out there is already headed down this path, I’d love to hear your stories.

]]>https://www.gregverdino.com/love-your-haters-redux-2007/Multifamily Social Media Summit 2016 Keynote: Get Big Resultshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/XP7n-HjT5M0/
Tue, 02 Feb 2016 19:21:47 +0000http://www.gregverdino.com/?p=836Last week, I gave the Day 2 opening keynote at the Multifamily Social Media Summit, the only conference specifically focused on how apartment building owners and managers can use social media and content marketing to attract and retain residents. For this presentation, I revisited the core premise of my book, microMARKETING &#8212; that in an era&#8230;Last week, I gave the Day 2 opening keynote at the Multifamily Social Media Summit, the only conference specifically focused on how apartment building owners and managers can use social media and content marketing to attract and retain residents.

For this presentation, I revisited the core premise of my book, microMARKETING — that in an era marked by the hyper-fragmentation of consumer culture, the democratization of media-making, and the shrinking of attention spans to a point at which small has become strategic when it comes to content (the tweet, the photo, the Vine-ready video) — and brought that thinking up to date with fresh examples and new ideas about the power of interaction, the value of content, and a formula for coming up with stronger ideas for social media campaigns and more powerful structures for social storytelling.

For those of you interested in seeing what the Multifamily audience saw, here are my slides. The usual caveat applies: these visuals (along with multimedia elements that I’ve stripped out of the ‘leave-behind’ version embeddded here) were meant to accompany my talk, not to stand on their own. If you’d like more context, continue reading below…

If I had to summarize my talk, I’d boil it down to these key insights.

The three big shifts from mass to micro (in culture, media and content) have certainly taken hold, and while many brands still cling to mass like a marketing life vest, enough have embraced the types of techniques I wrote about in the book that it has become likelier than ever that your social will be ignored by the very audience it’s intended for.

Brands can do three things to earn (or in many cases, win back) and hold consumers’ attention. First: to get attention, brands must give attention. Yes, this harkens back to some tried and true social media advice — listen and respond(fellow keynoter Jay Baer focused on this point specifically, in his talk based on his forthcoming book Hug Your Haters). More importantly, it comes with an important corollary — the simple interaction is the most basic form of social currency. And the conversation is among the most fundamental forms of microcontent. Ultimately, interactions can’t be left to chance. Any organization that is serious about social must operationalize interactions and make them a key component of a total, consumer-centric brand experience.

The second thing brands can — some would say must — do is use content as a way to create value for the consumer and capture value for the company. This requires brands to set clear objectives for content and be strategic. Beyond these things though, good content must super-serve its intended audience, be approached with a commitment to both quality and consistency, and be distinct from similar content offerings already available from other publishers or brands.

And finally, brands can deliver stronger, more social, content-driven experiences if they follow a simple formula I laid out in the book six years ago. Create something that will be of high interest to your intended audience, allow that audience to build on your interesting idea as a platform for self-expression (nobody wants to share your message but they’re often happy to share their own message and let you “ride along”), and provide some form of motivation for participation (strong motivating factors can range from monetary incentives to headier inspiration like an opportunity to be part of something bigger than oneself). Sounds simple enough — and it is, but in the rush to chase the next new thing, even the savviest social marketers often lose site of the basics. And this is one basic approach that has delivered results for more than a decade, across a wide range of iconic social media marketing programs including oldies like the Ford Fiesta Movement to goodies like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Interest + Expression + Motivation. It just works…

All in all, it was fun to return to microMARKETING and see just how well the concepts have stood the test of time. Even more, it was exciting to bring these ideas to an industry that is committed to upping its marketing game to better meet the needs of its new and next generation of customers.

]]>https://www.gregverdino.com/multifamily-social-media-summit-2016-keynote-get-big-results/Beyond Knowledge: Toward a Connections Economy (2008)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/_44KFpfwGzM/
Mon, 01 Feb 2016 17:22:16 +0000http://www.gregverdino.com/?p=825As part of my A Decade in Digital series, I&#8217;ll be reposting some older articles from my original blog &#8212; articles that date back as far as 2006 but contain ideas that to some extent (and to me, at least) still feel relevant. This post, originally written on January 30, 2008, considers an economy that&#8230;As part of my A Decade in Digitalseries, I’ll be reposting some older articles from my original blog — articles that date back as far as 2006 but contain ideas that to some extent (and to me, at least) still feel relevant. This post, originally written on January 30, 2008, considers an economy that was moving from one based around knowledge to one built around the connections we form (as individuals and as organizations) by making more of the things we know free and public. In the time since I wrote these thoughts, more and more of our IT infrastructure and software services have moved toward open source and into the cloud, the pace of social sharing has only accelerated, we’ve witnessed the rising tide of social business, newly posited models for leadership and the future of work, and even bold moves like Tesla’s release of their patents for free use by any other business that wishes to innovate around them.

We’re hearing more and more about ‘cloud computing’ lately. If you’re not familiar with the term, former IBM big brain Irving Wlawadsky-Berger provides a succinct definition:

“What is cloud computing? It is basically an Internet-based network made up of large numbers of servers – mostly based on open standards, modular and inexpensive. Clouds contain vast amounts of information and provide a variety of services to large numbers of people. Users of the cloud only care about the service or information they are accessing – be it from their PCs, mobile devices, or anything else connected to the Internet – not about the underlying details of how the cloud works.”

This trend led Wlawadsky-Berger to write a series of posts about our evolution toward a knowledge-based economy. They’re well worth the read — here, here and here (in that order.) Nicholas Carr has emerged as cloud computing’s reigning rainmaker; he’s well worth a read as well.

But I can’t help but think about a parallel trend that is more about people and how we behave than the underlying technologies we may come to use – the share-and-share-alike culture of social media and what this means about the nature of knowledge itself.

In a nutshell:

KNOWLEDGE ITSELF IS MOVING INTO THE CLOUD

What do I mean, exactly?

Although I should probably do some kind of reader poll to be absolutely certain, I think it’s safe to presume that most of you are knowledge workers in marketing, media or technology. You get paid to turn what you know into a work product that your company or its customers will buy. That work product might be knowledge itself (a strategy, a white paper) or it might be a thing (a piece of software, a print magazine, a Super Bowl spot), but the important bit is that you trade in knowledge rather than iron, steel or those things that we called widgets back in the 1950s (hint: they weren’t portable chunks of content and functionality.)

Once upon a time, an individual’s (or organization’s) knowledge was highly prized and closely guarded. It was your intellectual property, the capital you traded for cold hard cash. A company would hire you because you knew more or knew better, and seemed to be better able to translate what you knew into action. In turn, a customer would hire your company because they believed that the knowledge you bring to bear was valuable and unique. Sure, other companies might provide similar services but there was just something about your knowledge base, thought process or whatever that just seemed more right for that particular customer’s needs.

Where did all that proprietary intellectual capital come from? Some of it was (and is) truly original thinking on the part of the individuals that make up the knowledge workforce. But, truth be told, much of it was lifted from other sources or, more likely,synthesize from multiple fonts of raw material. However, more often than not even those sources or raw materials required an outlay of cash — they were books by experts, expensive seminars by thought leaders and, of course, college educations. Or they required a potentially significant outlay of time and attention — weekly breakfasts with a mentor, an unpaid (or low paying) internship where you learned just the bare-boned fundamentals of what people actually do in the industry you one day hoped to join. In any case, knowledge was costly, to some extent scarce and maybe even out of reach to all but a chosen few (who got that internship, who could afford that college education, who scraped together the money for that eye-opening seminar.)

OK – right – so fast forward to the Internet Age and more specifically the Social Media Age. The Internet has, of course, made knowledge more readily accessible and increasingly free (or close to it.) Purveyors of social media have taken that a step further – many steps further, in fact.

I’ll use myself as a case in point — not because I am the web’s foremost purveyor of free brilliance but because I know what I’ve shared and, to an extent, how many people have received free knowledge. Well, I share ideas every week (nearly every day) on this blog – some are good, some are bad and some are simply works in progress. And more than 1,000 people access this knowledge via RSS every day and some countless others may discover an idea or two through Google and the long tail effect. I’ve shared 12 presentations on Slideshare.net and these have amassed a total of more than 25,000 views.

That’s an awful lot of knowledge that has gone beyond my head (where it was proprietary information, at least until the point someone – usually an employer or a client – wrote a check to buy some of my thinking) and is now quite literally resident in the Internet Cloud (for free and forever.) Even at a hypothetical $1/view, those 25,000 Slideshare views start to look like real money. Even more so if, instead of posting the presentations under a share-and-share-alike Creative Commons license, I charged even 50 companies just $1,000 for an in-person seminar during which I presented one of those same slide decks (I’ve been paid more than that to speak and there are plenty of people that earn upwards of $20,000 for just one presentation.)

Do I share everything I know? Of course not. But even two years ago, I wouldn’t have shared anything — not unless I worked with you or for you. And if I worked for you, you probably wouldn’t have had it any other way. My “knowledge output” was work-for-hire and, if you paid for it, it was now yourproprietary information. (If you work for a large corporation, you most likely signed a confidentiality agreement and something acknowledging that anything you think up while on that corporation’s payroll that is relevant to the corporation’s business is in fact property of the corporation.)

But as I implied a couple of paragraphs back, this isn’t about me per se. It’s about the fact that there are thousands upon thousands of “me’s” sharing their knowledge, documenting their theories and their thought processes, helping others make those slippery connections between seemingly disparate ideas. And many of them are doing it through blogging, podcasting or presenting at Podcamps, among other things — free to anyone with a web browser. And I’m not arguing that it should be otherwise (no I’m not saying I should bill y’all for each time you’ve downloaded a slide set or read a post) but…

IS KNOWLEDGE BECOMING A COMMODITY

If you want expertise on a given topic, you don’t need to hire one expert (or even one company of experts.) You might simply need to draw the best thinking from hundreds of experts, all of whom have chosen to freely share their thinking online. And the very same information that is accessible to you is accessible to your competitors and just about anyone else who cares to look for it.

And if I think about why I share, I realize that it is less about self-expression than it is about a realization that for everything I “put in,” I will get that much more out — many times over. No matter what I know (or think I know), I realize that “we are smarter than me” and that my own ideas are better in combination with the countless other ideas from other thinkers on virtually any topic I care about. Sharing is the ticket to ride or (to get all retro cyberpunk on you) my knowledge permits me to “jack in” to a knowledge base that is bigger, better and widely distributed – yet easily and freely accessible to all.

IS THE WEB BECOMING ONE GIANT CROWDSOURCED BRAIN?

That’s a pretty powerful concept — and one that I’d argue is far more significant than the architectural implications of cloud computing technology (though the evolution of one is almost assuredly contingent upon the evolution of the other.)

But if you buy into this concept, doesn’t it also mean that we are moving beyond – not toward – the knowledge economy, at least beyond the economy that puts a significant monetary value on proprietary knowledge?

At least among social media circles, we seem to place more value on the people who share most freely than we do on those who are “knowledge misers.” Sharers become the individuals (and sometimes companies) that amass the largest networks, yield the greatest amount of influence, are tapped by mainstream media reporters and conference organizers to share their knowledge in additional forums (often for nothing more than the promise of ‘exposure’), are most often shortlisted for job opportunities or consulting gigs. Or at a personal level, some person may hire my firm for a project or me for a speaking gig because something I share on my blog or a concept I present in a public slideshow resonates for them – but the number of times that has happened is far exceeded by the number of times I’ve met people who have thanked me (in person, over email, through comments or by becoming and remaining a loyal reader/follower/fan/friend/whatever) for giving them free reign over some of my ideas.

So at the end of the day, knowledge — and more specifically knowledge freely shared (in both senses of the word ‘free’) — might be a currency, but is the true value shifting beyond knowledge to “connections?” In other words, is knowledge becoming nothing more than a conduit to connections, while connections are becoming the bankable asset?

It may have always been true that “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” But if knowledge is becoming a commodity, I’d take that age-old maxim a step further. I’d argue that over time — just as agrarian economies gave way to industrial economies and industrial economies have shifted to knowledge economies — our current knowledge-based economy will become:

A CONNECTIONS ECONOMY

]]>https://www.gregverdino.com/beyond-knowledge/Blended Retail Will Drive Shopping Beyond Showroominghttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/Vc63APXbD_M/
Thu, 21 Jan 2016 19:32:55 +0000http://www.gregverdino.com/?p=817Retailers, like companies in so many industries, continue to struggle with important shifts in consumer behavior driven by advances in digital technologies. Even the biggest brick-and-mortar brands are vexxed by trends like showrooming &#8212; the increasingly common practice of visiting a physical store to check out a product then going online to buy it at&#8230;Retailers, like companies in so many industries, continue to struggle with important shifts in consumer behavior driven by advances in digital technologies. Even the biggest brick-and-mortar brands are vexxed by trends like showrooming — the increasingly common practice of visiting a physical store to check out a product then going online to buy it at a better price. Daniel G. Bachrach, Professor of Management at the Culverhouse College of Commerce of the University of Alabama and co-author of the new book More Than a Showroom: Strategies for Winning Back Online Shoppers believes the blur and blend between digital and physical holds the key to building 21st century shopper experiences that win the hearts and minds of even the savviest consumers. In this guest post, Dan unpacks this idea. If you like what you read, be sure to check out his book for more thinking on this topic.

WHAT RETAIL CUSTOMERS REALLY WANT

Customers want consistency between virtual and physical channels. Visual and functional consistency across channels, coupled with seamless channel interconnectedness decreases the likelihood that customers will seek out and/or make purchases from online or brick-and-mortar competitors. Because customers’ experiences can easily and harmoniously flow from in-store experience to online purchases, and also from online research to in-store purchases, financial incentives to purchase elsewhere dissolve. An example of an inconsistency that can disrupt the customer experience flow are loyalty programs where points can be redeemed only on in-store purchases. This artificial barrier is inconsistent with customers’ expectations, and they are more likely to search elsewhere for products where they aren’t penalized for online purchases.

Showrooming customers want a convenient experience that includes digital resources such as coupons, check-ins, online price comparisons, and a wide range of transparent product information. Consumers want and expect these resources and information to be immediately available to them and delivered in the most efficient and convenient way. If retailers don’t immediately and conveniently supply information and resources consumers seek, shoppers will very quickly find other vendors, such as online competitors, who will meet these expectations. Retailers can drive business and loyalty by offering such digital resources through online and mobile tools. For example, a clothing retailer in the Southwest began using SMS (short message service) for coupons and sent coupons directly to loyal customers via text messages delivered to their mobile devices. These coupons were not only appreciated but were actually preferred by the store’s customers. While this is just one example, retailers have reported that these coupons can drive up to four times their normal in-store foot traffic.

The vast majority of shoppers are more likely to buy when retailers provide an experience that coincides with their expectations and their experiences with other retailers. This can be done in a number of ways, such as developing and regularly maintaining a useful, easy-to-navigate mobile platform website; establishing a convenient way to engage across store locations and website; creating easy-to-use smartphone shopping options, loyalty coupons, and other apps that specifically increase the attractiveness of shopping online with the retailer; and readily available in-store price comparisons. It is essential that customers’ in-store experience be more mobile-technology friendly and deployed expressly with the goal of engaging consumers with dynamic technology that improves their in-store retail experience.

MAKING IT HAPPEN DEPENDS ON EMPLOYEES

Sales employees and retail associates must be trained to observe showrooming behaviors and taught to proactively approach customers with offers, promotions, and information to help to close the in-store sale. Store employees must engage with showrooming customers in ways that add value to customers’ in-store experience. If owners don’t adopt proactive approaches that prepare employees to actively and aggressively embrace showrooming, the competition—both brick-and-mortar and online retailers—will. Consumers appreciate educated sales representatives and the information and expertise they bring to the in-store experience.

This is critical – as many as 60 percent of customers may be more likely to make an in-store purchase after being helped by a knowledgeable, trustworthy store associate. The problem is that with increasing societal trends emphasizing virtual socialization, virtual entertainment, virtual communication, and virtual experiences, customers have become conditioned to their phones being more helpful than anyone in the store. This problem is intensified by the fact that sales personnel also are subject to these broad societal trends and may defer offering professional assistance when consumers break out their smartphones.

Equipping employees with the technology and tools consumers expect and value can help retailers meet and exceed consumers’ expectations. Sales representatives armed with a tablet, ready and enthusiastically displaying price comparisons for customers, create and enhance the sense of value shopping. Proactive technology engagement also establishes a very different mood for the customer contact because now the encounter centers on discussion of value as opposed to customers seeking price comparisons in isolation on their smartphones and making judgments without input from the retailer.

STAYING AHEAD OF THE TREND

It is critical that retailers cater to consumers’ expectations in this new reality before sales are lost to competitors or online-only retailers. Early identification of consumers’ changing needs and expectations also fosters customer loyalty that can contribute to long-term sales growth. Betting on technology now and making investments to prepare for the pervasive shift in retailing is crucial. Retailers must carefully cater to the technology expectations of showrooming customers. Smartphone applications with digital product coupons, loyalty programs, and check-ins are convenient for consumers and enhance their feelings of value shopping.

These conveniences, which are increasingly taken for granted, prompt immediate purchase decisions (resulting in more in-store sales) while customers are still in the store. Customizing online offerings begins to create experiential parity with online retailers. Offering personalized prices through mobile devices may be among the most effective ways to engage digital shoppers. Retailers who embrace showrooming as a legitimate component to the retailing experience can help create new solutions to enhance customer engagement. Half of all high-performing retailers agree that timely, convenient, tactical in-store technologies can improve the effectiveness and impact of their salesforce.

To enhance the value of the retail shopping experience for customers, it is essential to blend the benefits of offerings throughout the shopping cycle. From product research to price comparisons to the point of purchase, retailers must embrace and utilize technology to enhance the retail experience, effectively negotiate showroomers’ expectations, and build brand loyalty and repeat sales. Adopting a contemporary approach to navigating the brave new world that is dominated by customers operating with a multichannel research capability will separate the winners from the losers in the retailing game over the next ten years.

]]>https://www.gregverdino.com/beyond-showrooming/I’m Speaking at Intelligent Content Conference 2016http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/j3cuk4iS8s4/
Tue, 24 Nov 2015 15:22:28 +0000http://www.gregverdino.com/?p=705It&#8217;s been five years since I&#8217;ve spoken at a &#8220;content conference.&#8221; Back in 2010, I presented at the Custom Content Conference, weaving ideas from my micro-content book microMARKETING into a speech for the very first time. That&#8217;s also where I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Content Marketing himself, Joe Pulizzi, in person for the first&#8230;It’s been five years since I’ve spoken at a “content conference.” Back in 2010, I presented at the Custom Content Conference, weaving ideas from my micro-content book microMARKETING into a speech for the very first time. That’s also where I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Content Marketing himself, Joe Pulizzi, in person for the first time (having previously blurbed his first book and spoken with him a time or two by phone). Joe and I recently had a chance to sit and chat when our paths crossed at Brand ManageCamp earlier this autumn — and we got to talking about the work we’re going here at VERDINO & CO and his vision for the newly revamped Intelligent Content Conference. That discussion led us to one of those a-ha moments, when we both realized it would make perfect sense to put this guy on that agenda. Which leads me to…

I’ll be speaking at the 2016 Intelligent Content Conference.

This event focuses specifically on “content strategy for marketers” (not to be confused with content marketing strategy), is brought to you by the same team that organizes the Content Marketing World mega-event, and has an agenda packed with many of the world’s most highly regarded content strategists. I’m honored to have the chance to speak alongside them.

OK, so what’s my topic? Well, it draws on my current work and also my prior experience as a digital strategist, digital transformation consultant and futurist speaker to explore how content strategy evolves as content itself becomes increasingly “untethered” from traditional interfaces. Here’s the full synopsis from the ICC website to whet your appetite:

The Untethered World — How to Prepare for the Mobile Takeover

(As you read on, you’ll see that I’m taking the idea of mobile well beyond smartphones and tablets, to really explore the links between mobility and untethered content.)

It’s 2016. If you’re not thinking “mobile first”, you’re not thinking straight. If you’re not creating content experiences that are equally useful, usable and relevant whether your consumer engages with your business online or on-the-go, you’re missing a huge opportunity to connect with increasingly mobile audiences. And we’re just getting started…

By 2020, more than 200 Billion everyday objects will be connected to the Internet. We’re not just talking about smartphones and tablets, or only connected cars and tweeting toasters. Think smart shoes, shirts, street lamps, sidewalks and soda cans. This is the Internet of Things and it is the next content frontier. Future-leaning companies are already embracing “product as content” — seamlessly integrating rich, personalized, content-driven experiences with the physical products they sell. We’ll look at some early examples and explore why content strategy will be even more important (and exciting) in an “untethered” world.

How smart marketers and content strategists alike are evolving their approach to content and meeting the needs of mobile-first audiences.

New ways to think about (and understand) a content ecosystem that is virtually limitless and content that is truly untethered from traditional interfaces.

Real world examples and future-looking ideas about how audiences will engage with “product as content” in the very near term.

]]>https://www.gregverdino.com/im-speaking-at-intelligent-content-conference-2016/The Great Content Caperhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/miob/~3/S10-3FFNzGg/
Thu, 09 Jul 2015 12:58:54 +0000http://www.gregverdino.com/?p=695Where does the time go? It&#8217;s been a full two months since we last checked in with Ian Patterson, wrapping up the fourth day in his Five Days Delivering Digital Transformation series of guest posts. Since then, Ian has taken on a swanky new client-side job in Liverpool and I&#8217;ve launched a new consultancy focused&#8230;Where does the time go? It’s been a full two months since we last checked in with Ian Patterson, wrapping up the fourth day in his Five Days Delivering Digital Transformation series of guest posts. Since then, Ian has taken on a swanky new client-side job in Liverpool and I’ve launched a new consultancy focused on content marketing — the latter of which makes Ian’s fifth and final post all the more fitting, as he shares his views on the role content plays in moving companies into the future.

So let’s join Ian as he shows up for Day 5.

DAY 5

In recent years there’s been a wave of information about the importance of content, specifically digital marketing or ‘content marketing’. Spurred on by significant updates to how Google delivers search results, emphasis has been placed on regularly updated, high quality content. This has led most conscientious business people to ponder the importance of content, how they can improve their content and (ideally) make money from it. To help satisfy this need, the digital industry has exploded with service options with 69% of senior marketers allocating their digital marketing funds to website content, development and performance optimisation.

Unfortunately the word ‘content’ is one of those vague words that will conjure a different meaning depending on who you are. Add the word ‘digital’ and we have two vague words that don’t really help explain themselves.

THE MANY FACES OF CONTENT

When I undertook a new role as Head of Digital Content some years ago I found myself explaining what digital content was, before I could make progress in meetings. Here are some examples of what the words ‘Digital Content’ mean to some people…

What you say – The message, substance, story and meaning.

What you want people to hear – The perception, influence or ‘public relations’ angle.

What you want people to do – The call to action, promotion, marketing or offer.

How you want to say it – The format: text, image, video or audio etc.

Where you want to say it – The channel: website, email, social media, mobile, search etc.

How you manage it – The publishing, storage, technology and governance of content.

Depending on your perspective, digital content can mean one or more of these things, but people tend to describe content as the thing we can see – the picture, post or video e.g. ‘the ‘wrapping’. In my experience, it’s the substance that matters more; the message, meaning, context and story hidden inside what you can see. What your company says and what your customer sees have never been more vital to the health of your business..

WHAT IS YOUR CULTURE OF CONTENT?

Businesses have always been held accountable for what they say, but it’s no secret that social media has lifted the lid on the corporate world. With each employee having a voice and customers expecting more in-depth content online, it’s never been so important to explore how content can improve your company culture, by empowering expression and sharing successes. Smart businesses start early, whilst others wait until the final day of a project to panic about what they should say.

On the final day of this series it seems fitting to share two experiences; one being a business that undervalued it’s digital content, and another that respected it.

CROSSED WIRES

It was during one of my more recent consulting assignments that I identified early a deficiency in the client’s approach to content content creation.

Having been asked to explore any way I could help, I focused on the need for the business to better understand and communicate their offering, by producing high quality content that attracted potential customers and earned positive feedback from clients. Unfortunately the owners didn’t see the value in producing content to this level and asked me to focus my attentions elsewhere. Hearing this I asked the owners what they would do if they lost one of their largest clients and didn’t have a credible content presence to attract new business. The answer they provided surprised me, as they explained their network of contacts would yield more then enough opportunity without investing time in producing content. I wasn’t convinced.

Months later their largest client experienced a market crash and withdrew spending. With virtually no content, the business had to start from scratch to fight for attention and new business leads. What could have been a well thought out content strategy, with inbound interest being attracted to them over time, instead ended up being a series of embarrassing new business attempts resulting in the loss of some staff whilst business waited to pick up.

This is perhaps one of the most extreme examples I have ever seen, of a business failing to embrace the importance of digital content, thus failing to communicate their success with the rest of the world.

CAPTIVATING CONTENT

At the other end of the scale are businesses that value the content they create so highly that their approach to content itself can have a positive, transformative effect for their business.

When consulting for a label manufacturer, I wondered how they could create content that would draw in a crowd. Based on sound content marketing principles, we started to unpack their history, learn about their typical buyers, put ourselves in their shoes, and think about the content a prospective customer would want to read. The net result was a content strategy that was so unique, the business owner wanted every employee to understand and embrace it as part of his or her day job. This meant creating internal communications like posters, mugs and desktop wallpapers that explained the importance of understanding the business audience to share exciting news, stories and anecdotes that could be re-purposed for blog content. The effects were profound, with the business feeling like it had turned a corner and had finally found it’s voice.

LET GO LIKE ANIMAL

And so, to end this series I’d like to offer up a challenge. If you’ve ever been mis-sold on the benefits of digital content, I’d like to suggest that you take some initiative and try producing content that your business (and you as a part of your business) will be proud of this month.

Forget the results for a second and focus on the story, the meaning behind your message. Find the sweet spot between the things that make your business unique and the things your customers will find useful. If you pitch it right, you may just find the market sees you as in control, confident, and making the right kind of noise (or more accurately, creating the right kind of signal) that resonates with your customers and prospects.

That’s a powerful prospect and a big first step in establishing a culture of content. And building a culture of content is an important step toward true digital — scratch that — business transformation.